Tour de France 2009: Stage 21 The Fat Lady Sings
One of the biggest stories of the 2009 Tour de France is that there were NO scandals or drug accusations. Alberto Contador’s 2007 victory was marred by the number of riders excluded for positive drug tests or missed testing during training. Even the Yellow Jersey wearer was removed and Contador inherited the lead rather than earning it. Contador’s inability to defend his title in 2008 was due to team Astana’s drug scandal from 2007. Everything this year was decided on the course, and the strongest riders won the Jerseys. See Le Tour for complete race results
Lance Armstrong’s third place overall was remarkable. The fact that a 37 year old could ride and climb with the best of them is unbelievable. Equally remarkable is the fact that Lance couldn’t time trial or accelerate on the climbs with the leaders, the two talents that are necessary to win the tour. If Lance was 27 instead of 37, I would say “Watch out for him next year”, as is the case with second place finisher and White Jersey holder Andy Schleck. 38 year olds don’t perform better than 37 year olds. It is just a fact that Father Time plays no favorites.
Jim Brown
All great competitors have to lose on the field of battle. Until they face the loss in the arena, they always believe that they can come back. This phenomenon doesn’t only apply to cycling. Boxers like Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran, Joe Louis and Larry Holmes went from great to tomato cans because they could not walk away. Who can forget the vision of baseball’s all-round greatest player Willie Mays floundering in the Mets outfield in 1973? Football players, especially quarterbacks, such as John Unitas and Joe Namath, continued their careers until they became hard to watch, tarnishing the great memories we had of them (hopefully this won’t happen to Brett Favre should he decide to come back). Though there are a very few exceptions, like Jim Brown and Rocky Marciano, the one thing all great competitors seem to have is that they must lose on the battle field. They must go down swinging. It seems part of the competitive wiring gene of great athletes.
Alberto Contador is a great climber and has recently learned to time trial, he will only get better over the next 5 or 6 tours. Likewise, Andy Schleck is young and a great climber. At 25, he has plenty of time to strengthen his time trialing and be a great competitor to Contador. I look forward to the battles between Contador and Schleck, as each organizes teams and talented domestiques around themselves, as well as the challenge Lance’s team Radio Shack can bring to the tour next year. Savvy team manager Johan Bruyneel along with Lance’s determination will make Team Radio Shack a major competitor out of the box. Lance just needs to make sure he develops young riders to compete with the likes of Contador and Schleck, and not just rely on the time tested riders from his era.
This was a great tour, and we should all look forward to next year!
I guess it is that warrior spirit that got them to the top to begin with that keeps them fighting on, maybe even tricking the mind as time goes by.
I certainly dont think Lance is in the category of some of those boxers, my goodness he was third overall at age 37 in a 2,000 mile bike race!
I agree with Kerry, Lance should be awfully proud for what he accomplished as the “old man” on the tour. he’s still got legs and lungs to whip most of the younger talent.
Yeah the sports world is not kind to those who try and hang on
I don’t agree with Barney Rumplemeyer about pro athletes tarnishing our memories of them by perhaps playing after some of their skills had diminished. Frankly, I sick of hearing that. Athletes should play until they want to play. Not all have athletes have a huge ego and want to be remembered as a stud. Think Steve Carlton – he was released a bunch of times at the end of his career but it doesn’t diminish what he did earlier in his career.